After 29 games, they are in first place in the Northwest Division and third in the NHL West with 34 points; their .607 winning percentage is tied for sixth among 30 teams, and they are 12-5-1 since Feb. 7.

Heady numbers for a team that has not reached the NHL playoffs in four seasons.

The Wild’s 3-1 victory over the Canucks on Monday night, March 18, was their first in Vancouver in more than four years. But the road doesn’t get easier for Minnesota, which plays the Red Wings on Wednesday night, plays host to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday and then travels to Dallas, where the Wild have not won since March 21, 2003.

Nevertheless, there is optimism up and down the roster, and for good reason. The lineup has solidified, the goaltending has been good and the team’s collective attitude has been on a crescendo.

It all reflects application of the elements coach Mike Yeo preaches: win faceoffs, forecheck hard, clear the puck away from in front of the goaltender, win puck battles.

The Wild won 68 percent of the faceoffs against the Canucks on Monday, but there are no statistics to show that five skaters continually kept goalie Niklas Backstrom from needing to make more than one save per attack, and there are no numbers to verify that the Wild often held the blue line.

Nevertheless, forechecking has become one of the Wild’s strengths.

It’s about persistence, effort and quickness, factors only Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise seemed to display early in the season. But it rubbed off; Matt Cullen, Charlie Coyle, Torrey Mitchell and others gained proficiency.

By Monday night, Wild players hustled after pucks in the offensive zone as if they expected to get them.

Unlike in many previous trips to Vancouver, whether they were jousting for the puck or trying to come from behind, the Wild looked like a team that believed in itself.

When they opened with a 4-5-1 record this season, the Wild spawned more questions than answers. They played well in spurts and were dreadful at times. Offense was a two-man operation with Koivu and Parise getting little support. The much-anticipated arrival of former first-round draft pick Mikael Granlund fizzled. The revival of former top offensive weapons Setoguchi, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Dany Heatley sputtered. All-star defenseman Ryan Suter fell well into the negative side of plus-minus numbers. Defenseman Marco Scandella regressed, defenseman Jared Spurgeon was injured and forward Darroll Powe was a no-show.

Then backup goaltender Josh Harding revealed that the medications he was taking for multiple sclerosis weren’t clicking.

Yeo responded by telling his team to forget about those first 10 games.

After the Wild beat the Calgary Flames 2-1 in overtime on Feb. 26, Yeo took steps to further reduce the pressure by going on a rant directed at impatient fans and media.

“I’ll start by saying that if we thought that we were just going to sign a couple of players and all of a sudden, we’ve arrived … open the gates and here we are a playoff team, that’s not reality,” he said. “It’s hard, you know? You have to do a lot of things to be a winner, to find yourself at that point. There’s great teams you’re competing against; there’s teams that have been there, that have done it year after year. And you have to beat them out. And you have to deal with the emotions, the physicality, the toll that it takes night after night. This is what we’re learning.”

The learning curve has continued.

Suter, who played seven seasons under the same coach and most of them with the same defensive partner, found a new comfort level and has become one of the best if not the best defenseman in the league.

Setoguchi went from zero goals through 10 games to an offensive force who has 16 points in his past 17 games.

Powe was sent packing, and newcomer Mike Rupp brought veteran savvy and poise.

Spurgeon recovered, and Granlund and Scandella were dispatched to the AHL for seasoning.

Heatley, known as a goal scorer, suddenly produced as many assists as goals.

Defenseman Jonas Brodin played like a bona fide candidate for rookie of the year, while rookies Coyle and Jason Zucker supplied strength and speed.

Cullen and Setoguchi emerged as a dynamite twosome, and Bouchard rebounded from a rare benching to contribute five points in his first three games back.

Minnesota’s offense has exhibited depth through all four lines, taking a huge burden off the shoulders of Parise and Koivu.

In addition, Backstrom has done yeoman work in the nets.

With Harding still missing, Yeo has been asked several times if he is worried about riding Backstrom too much, if Backstrom might be getting worn out.

But Backstrom started his eighth consecutive game Monday in Vancouver and posted 35 saves in one of his best games of the season, lowering his goals-against average to 2.34 and upping his save percentage to .915.

“He didn’t look tired tonight,” Yeo said after the game.

Neither did anyone else.

Although Monday’s game represented a big win, Yeo keeps saying that this is a journey.

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